title: Nursing work environment in Saudi Arabia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to assess the work environment as perceived by nurses in a large tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The quality of patient care services has been associated with the quality of work environment of nurses. It is therefore important to assess the work environment in order to acquire baseline data and enable the institution to benchmark their status from established quality standards.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used a descriptive survey with 1007 staff nurses across service units of a 1000-bed government-operated hospital. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) Healthy Work Environment Assessment Questionnaire was used for data collection. Scores were aggregated and interpreted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Effective decision making, authentic leadership, appropriate staffing, true collaboration, skilled communication and meaningful recognition were rated as good (mean range 3.53-3.76).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Healthy work environments mutually benefit patients, nurses, nurse managers, health care providers, the health team, administration, the institution and the community at large.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Valuable baseline data on the status of the work environment in this setting were generated. This should allow administrators and staff to work together in improving weaknesses and strengthening further whatever gains that are attained to ensure consistent provision of safe and quality patient care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Administration and Education, College of Nursing, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Ahmad E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Aboshaiqah
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009718:Nurse Administrators / Q000592:standards; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000592:standards*
keywords: nurse work environment; nursing; quality patient care